Mechanical Design for the Stage

6

Maximum Power and Force

Power

Force without movement does not require power. A column holding up a building does not need a battery or gas engine to keep it standing. Movement without force also does not require power. No examples of that exist here on Earth because friction always presents a resistance to be overcome, but in deep space, a rocket initially propelled forward may then travel for decades with no further push. It is the combination of force and movement, or more specifically force and velocity, that requires power.

Power is a scalar quantity, which means that it has magnitude, but not a direction. So there is no left power versus right power, or offstage power versus onstage, but power does have a sign associated with it, and that ...